25 IslandVibesIOP.com t’s that time of year again. Hurricane season. It’s also the anniversary of what many folks in the Lowcountry consider a day that will live in infamy: September 21, 1989. If you were living anywhere near here at the time, you know exactly what that date signifies. “Where were you during Hugo?” are words that many long-time residents still ask one another. I personally recalled that, beforehand, I thought it was much ado about nothing. Standing in line at K-Mart waiting to buy a bedspread, I saw other customers stocking up on batteries, flashlights and the like. I thought, ‘These folks clearly are not from here.’ We’ve seen enough hurricanes to know Isabella Wilkinson 843-343-7729 ISABELLA@CARROLLREALTYINC.COM Michael Carroll 843-478-4944 mc@carrollrealtyinc.com John Beall 843-469-2909 bealljohn66@gmail.com Matt DeAntonio 843-532-6288 matt@mattdeantonio.com Winslow Carroll 843-460-7681 winslow@carrollrealtyinc.com Bob Rosene 843-607-9429 captainbob@bobrosene.com Jimmy Carroll 843-452-1200 jimmy@jimmycarroll.com Deep Island Roots, Three Generations of Knowledge Selling where we LOVE Living Isle Of Palms 843-886-9600 • CarrollRealtyInc.com BROKER IN CHARGE settlers arrived in Bulls Bay in 1670, the Sewee welcomed them, greeting them with friendly shouts and directing them as to where to come ashore. Some men of the tribe even swam out to meet the boat of new arrivals. The Sewee recognized that the physical appearance of the Englishmen was different from that of the Spaniards, and they hoped these newcomers would help protect their tribe from exploitation. One of the English passengers, Nicholas Carteret, wrote “When we came ashore, they stroked us on our shoulders with their hands,” apparently a customary greeting akin to a warm handshake, and used the words “appada” meaning peace and “hiddie dod” or great kindness. The natives called these white men “Bony Conrary Angles,” somewhat of a blend of Spanish and English they had picked up from previous explorers and translated as Good Friends Englishmen. At this first encounter, the Sewee, who called themselves Shee-a-wee, carried the leader of the English group on their shoulders to the home of their tribal leader and served their guests nuts and root cakes. A business transaction was made when the Sewee offered deerskins and furs to the Englishmen in exchange for knives and tobacco. Over time, trade became well-established between the two groups, with the skins and fur of wolf, bear and bobcat being additional commodities the Sewee could provide their white friends. The Sewee introduced the settlers to agricultural practices, including the growing of pumpkins, watermelons and two or three crops of corn a year and even shared food with them when the colonists’ supplies ran short. The Sewee also educated the European settlers on the medicinal practice of using Cassina tea, roots, berries and nuts which, according to the English surveyor general, “hath been often found to heal an Englishman of a malady that many a white physician had deemed incurable.” Unfortunately, however, the Sewee had no remedy for smallpox, a deadly disease introduced to them by their European friends. The Sewee were not known to travel far from their villages, preferring to remain there and avoid enemy tribes such as the Yamassee who lived south of peninsular Charleston. But during the Yamasee War (17151718), the Sewee aided the white colonists in the conflict with the Yamassee and their allies. “The Indians all about us are our friends” One of the early English settlers in the East Cooper area wrote in a letter to Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper on Aug. 30, 1671, that “The Indians all about us are our friends.” They were amicable neighbors for decades, but by 1715, there was no further mention of the Sewee tribe in written documentation recorded by the Englishmen. Local historian Anne King Gregorie surmised, “Inevitably, as east of the Cooper was one of the earliest places in the state to be occupied by white men, so it was one of the first to lose its aborigines.” Although there may not have been a Thanksgiving here like the one that played out in Plymouth in 1621, the white settlers who shared the Sewees’ land had much for which to thank them. From Page 24
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